Best of Studs Terkel

Fridays at 11:00 pm

Enjoy these rebroadcasts of the late great oral historian Studs Terkel’s longstanding interview program on WFMT.

For 45 years (1952-1997), WFMT was home to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel, who operated from a tiny room overstuffed with papers, books, and an antique typewriter. Studs’s career – and everything cultural – unfolded before our eyes. Over the years, the guests on his daily radio show ranged from ordinary Chicagoans to international figures: political leaders, writers, performers, social activists, and labor organizers. Covering wide-ranging topics, Studs was remarkable in his depth of knowledge and in his ability to get others to open up and talk. Most of all, he modeled a quality that became his job title at WFMT: Free Spirit.

Learn more about the Studs Terkel Radio Archive by visiting its website.

Tonight’s “Christmas Memories” broadcast with Studs Terkel was first offered on WFMT in 1961, so this is our annual broadcast of that perennial favorite. Here then, voices and memories of childhood Christmases.

The Best of Studs Terkel presents a WFMT favorite and long-time New Year’s broadcast tradition. It’s “Born to Live,” a program of interviews, spoken word, and musical responses to the nuclear age that Studs produced in 1961 with colleague Jim Unrath. “Born to Live” won the Prix Italia, an award Studs described as “the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for ...

Brother John Sellers (1924-1999) was friend of Big Bill Broonzy, godson of Mahalia Jackson, and an inspired singer of gospel, folk, and work songs. This conversation with Studs Terkel dates from 1982 and includes many recordings and remembrances.

The Best of Studs Terkel presents “It’s Like A Dream to Me,” Studs Terkel’s 1970 birthday tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Please be advised that in addition to the hope, optimism, and struggles of the Civil Rights Movement, this historical program includes an interview containing strong language of an offensive nature which conveys the harsh reality of the time ...

Warm up your January with Studs Terkel’s annual birthday tribute to Mozart, the prolific and influential composer who was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756. Studs first offered this program of music and stories in January 1974.

Vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock has been named the collective artist in residence at the University of Chicago. In 1986, Bernice Johnson Reagon and her colleagues shared stories and songs in a musical hour with Studs Terkel.

Abraham Lincoln – the 16th president of the United States, who held the country together during a bloody Civil War and engineered the end of slavery – was born in a log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. Studs Terkel created this tribute in 1958.

On February 22, 1732 George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. At that time his home was part of British America. In this musical tribute from 1959, Studs Terkel tells the tale of the first president and one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.

Beethoven’s birthday has always been something of holiday around here at WFMT, and on December 16, 1968 Studs Terkel celebrated accordingly. Here is that radiophonic tribute, filled with what Studs described as “all of the variety and variations on the theme of Ludwig’s birthday.”

It was in December 1988 that Studs Terkel presented this musical tribute to Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. The hour begins with songs of Martha Schlamme and Theo Bikel, and some klezmer music, too. In the second half, Studs reads Grace Paley’s short story, “Good-bye and Good Luck”.

Opera icon Placido Domingo has sung 150 different roles, more than any other tenor in the annals of music, with more than 3900 career performances. In 1979, many knowledgeable critics considered him to be the finest, most powerful tenor since Caruso. That was the year WFMT listeners heard his voice – his singing and his reflections – in a musical ...

Tonight we hear one of Studs Terkel’s favorite programs, one in which he wove together stories and remembrances of war as described through words and music. He first presented this commemoration in November 1960 and we rebroadcast it in honor of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day and the end of World War I.

A Japanese American born in Spokane, Washington, George Nakashima created some of the most beautiful and ironically organic furniture of the twentieth century. The master craftsman and M.I.T-trained architect spoke with Studs Terkel in 1977.

Harmonica virtuoso and composer, Corky Siegel, was born in Chicago in 1943. In honor of his platinum jubilee on October 24, and the half-century he’s devoted to the harmonic convergence of blues and classical, we bring you a musical hour he shared with Studs Terkel in 1976.

Composer Oliver Knussen passed away earlier this year at the age of 66. He spoke with Studs Terkel in 1988, around the time Chicago Opera theater presented Where the Wild Things Are, Knussen’s opera based on the children’s book by Maurice Sendack.

Dr. Maya Angelou, the celebrated American poet, novelist, educator, dramatist, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activists spoke with Studs Terkel in March 1970. The topic was the story of her life as portrayed in her recently published memoir, I Know the Caged Bird Sings.

Author and multifaceted actress Anna Deavere Smith creates one-woman stage shows featuring her evocative portrayals of real people confronted with difficult life issues. She frequently credits Studs Terkel’s book “Working” for revealing to her to her the dramatic power of spoken Language, and for inspiring her plays such as “Fires in the Mirror” and “Let Me Down Easy”.

Tonight, The Best of Studs Terkel presents Part two of WFMT’s annual remembrance of the 1963 March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Studs Terkel was there, joining hundreds of Chicagoans on the train bound for Washington, D.C., and recording their thoughts and experiences on his portable tape recorder. This Train is the radio soundscape through which ...

Tonight The Best of Studs Terkel presents Part one of WFMT’s annual remembrance of the 1963 March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Studs Terkel was there, joining hundreds of Chicagoans on the train bound for Washington, D.C., and recording their thoughts and experiences on his portable tape recorder. This Train is the radio sound-scape through which ...

In Studs Terkel’s book Working, he celebrates everyday people in their own words and the way they make their living. Tonight on the Best of Studs Terkel we bring you this rebroadcast of his 1960 tribute to Labor Day.

In 1985, Studs Terkel and Leonard Bernstein discussed life, American culture, and a diverse range of music. The great American composer and conductor was born 100 years ago, on August 25, 1918, and we wish him and his enduring legacy the happiest of centennials.

Don McLean is the revered American songwriter behind mega-hits like “American Pie,” “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night),” “Castles in the Air,” and many more. Studs Terkel brought along his portable tape recorder when he visited the touring troubadour in 1979. Don McLean returns to Chicago on August 19 for a concert at City Winery.

Tom Paxton has been praised by many as the perceptive and clever musical voice of his generation. The American folk legend and topical songwriter shared some conversation and tunes with Studs Terkel in this program from January 1976.

Tonight, an annual WFMT tradition dating back many decades. Its one of the many radio plays Studs Terkel created partnership with announcer and engineer Jim Unrath. They based the program on Norman Corwin’s prose poem, Overkill and Megalove, a response to the bombing of Hiroshima that deals with the madness of war that leads to the obliteration of the human ...

Meet the Host

Studs Terkel (1912-2008) radically redefined the concept of radio interviews. For 45 years starting in 1952, WFMT was his homebase. His daily radio show was a pillar of WFMT’s programming, with its eclectic and astute mix of music and conversation. Studs juxtaposed interviews with the many of the 20th century’s most significant figures with the voices of uncelebrated, working people from Chicago. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Studs helped established oral history as a popular and socially ambitious literary genre. Some of his titles include: Division Street, Hard Times, Working, Race and And They All Sang (Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey). Studs was also a recipient of the National Book Award.